My wife used to sell makeup to drag queens.
It was early in our marriage and we were living in Columbia, Missouri. A childhood friend of hers from rural Missouri sometimes dressed in drag for performances at a local bar. He and his friends liked the brand of makeup my wife sold as a side business. So they bought a lot of makeup.
I mention the story because drag queens in Columbia were in the news last week. In fact, drag queens have been in the news a lot lately. It’s one of those culture war topics that elected Republicans like to talk about these days.
There was state Sen. Bill Eigel, a St. Charles County Republican, raising a stink a couple of months ago about a drag queen Christmas show in Chesterfield. There are other Republicans clutching their pearls about drag-queen reading hours in public libraries. About the only elected Republican who doesn’t want to talk about drag queens is Rep. George Santos of New York,
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Last week’s trumped-up outrage was about an annual diversity event in Columbia that draws about 1,000 people as the city celebrates the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The Columbia Values Diversity event has been a fixture since I lived there two decades ago. This year, it featured drag queens singing and dancing as part of a performance by an LGBTQ group called .
There was nothing overtly sexual about the performance. But elected Republicans, from Gov. Mike Parson to Attorney General Andrew Bailey, were triggered. Bailey to the Columbia Public Schools — which had students at the event whose parents signed permission slips — and accused them of violating Missouri law.
This is becoming Bailey’s specialty. When he was Parson’s attorney, he advised the governor to seek prosecution against Post-Dispatch reporter Josh Renaud, who in doing his job exposed a design flaw in a state database that made teachers’ personal information vulnerable to hackers.
Columbia superintendent with a strong response to state politicians and professional public school opposers trying to make hay by misrepresenting anything they can to stir up the rabid right
— Sam Cohen (@cohenss)
Renaud protected teachers. Bailey wanted to send him to jail. An actual prosecutor read the law and declined charges. So Columbia Public Schools Superintendent Brian Yearwood shouldn’t be too concerned with Bailey’s grasp of the law. But he and every other superintendent in the state — as well as teachers and parents — should be concerned with Missouri Republicans’ constant attacks on public schools and diversity. Meanwhile, those officials are ignoring more important issues, such as salaries for Missouri teachers, who are among the lowest paid in the country.
On Tuesday morning, after Bailey spent a few days burnishing his Republican credentials by tossing out the word “woke” like it was Halloween candy (, I presume), House lawmakers heard a bill sponsored by Sen. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, that is . The bill would ban the teaching of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “1619 Project” in public schools; ban transgender children from sports and gender-appropriate bathrooms; and follow in Florida’s footsteps by adding a “don’t say gay” limitation to curriculum. It is one of at least 27 anti-LGBTQ bills in the Missouri Legislature, more than any state in the country, .
Meanwhile, in Congress, Santos is under fire for lying about pretty much his entire resume and faces possible criminal investigation over campaign finance violations. But he is still a member of Congress, without people like Bailey sending threatening letters calling for his ouster.
Oh, the hypocrisy. Among the few verified facts about Santos’ background is that he dressed as a drag queen when he lived in Brazil. That doesn’t bother me anymore than drag queens being a part of a diversity celebration, but it does help reveal the emptiness of the Republican culture war.
In Missouri, Bailey will pad his campaign coffers by continuing his predecessor’s predilection for using state office to attack public schools. But such distractions cause real harm to LGBTQ students, to students of color and to public schools, which are bleeding teachers who are tired of attacks while funding requests are ignored.
If Missouri lawmakers were less focused on culture wars, and more on making sure that schools have adequate resources, they might have noticed an item in the budget request filed by the Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development. That department recently compared Missouri to 13 other Midwestern states. Here are the results:
Missouri is last in growth of gross domestic product, a key economic indicator; 12th in labor productivity; 11th in per capita income; and ninth in job growth.
According to its own numbers, Missouri is failing economically because it is not investing in its public schools or higher education. Those numbers don’t sound any better whether they’re read by a heterosexual economist wearing a suit, or a drag queen wearing makeup thick enough to cover a five o’clock shadow.
In pushing for library censorship and standing against gay marriage, Ashcroft ignores what he said his purpose in politics was.
When Republican state representative complains, Gov. Mike Parson’s administration orders removal of LGBTQ history display.